The operations carried out by Black Sea Oil & Gas (BSOG) in the Midia gas perimeter in the Romanian Black Sea section were financed by French banking groups Societe Generale and Credit Agricole. BSOG, which is indirectly controlled by the American asset management group Carlyle, with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) holding a minority stake of about 10 %, expects to start production in the second half of 2021.
Societe Generale’s London division together with its Romanian subsidiary BRD, Credit Agricole’s investment banking arm, and the EBRD, are among the original arrangers and lenders of a revolving multiple credit facility contract concluded with BSOG at the end of last year.
The facility’s value is 200 million euros and is intended, among others, to finance the costs of drilling, development, construction, testing, production, operation, management, and maintenance of the Ana and Doina gas wells in the Midia perimeter.
BSOG, the only company that has already made the final investment decision to exploit an offshore gas perimeter in Romania’s Black Sea, maintains its goal of bringing the first gas to shore in 2021, despite the operations lagging slightly behind schedule. In early 2020, CEO Mark Beacom explained that the development of the project is at 25 % at the moment, compared to planned 50 %, but the start of gas extraction scheduled for 2021 will not be affected. He said that BSOG will spend another 300 million dollars to start commercial gas extraction, after already spending 200 million dollars. The company’s portfolio consists of XV Midia Shallow Block and XIII Pelican Block in the Romanian Black Sea, where the company is the operator and holds 65 % stake. Last February, BSOG announced that it has approved the final investment decision to proceed with the 400 million dollars Midia Gas Development Project in the Black Sea. The Midia gas Project consists of 5 production wells (1 subsea well at Doina field and 4 platform wells at Ana field) a subsea gas production system over the Doina well which will be connected through an 18 kilometers long pipeline with a new unmanned production platform located over Ana field. A 126 kilometers gas pipeline will link the Ana platform to the shore. The processed gas will then be delivered into the national transmission system.
